Is there actually a liberal equivalent to QAnon? Travis doesn’t think so.

But there are anonymous entities and online communities that bear some of the noxious elements of QAnon, despite being liberal. In this episode we explore two of them. 

First, we take a look at the “Alt National Park” social media accounts. These are anonymous “resistance” accounts that got started during Trump’s first term, but took a strange turn when they moved to Bluesky. 

And then we’re going to explore the 4 AM Club, a loose community of spiritual women on Tik Tok who believe that they were awakened to something significant the day after the 2024 presidential election. 

Will fake park rangers and online channelers save us from the horrors of the Trump administration? You already know the answer, but listen to the episode to hear what we have to say about it.  


Subscribe for $5 a month to get all the premium episodes: www.patreon.com/qaa


REFERENCES

A Conversation With the Rogue National Park Service Twitter Account
https://www.vice.com/en/article/alternate-national-parks-service-explains-why-its-twitter-will-remain-anonymous/

Rogue National Park Service Twitter account says it’s no longer run by government employees…but maybe it never was
https://techcrunch.com/2017/01/27/rogue-national-park-service-twitter-account-says-its-no-longer-run-by-government-employees-but-maybe-it-never-was/

The "Alt National Park Service" Sounds an Awful Lot Like QAnon
https://jjoycelynch.substack.com/p/the-alt-national-parks-service-sounds

AltWatcher on Bluesky
https://bsky.app/profile/altwatcher.bsky.social

Meet the 4 a.m. club, TikTok’s mystical election night movement
https://www.fastcompany.com/91356982/meet-the-4-am-club-tiktoks-mystical-election-night-movement



The Hunt For Liberal QAnon (Premium E297) Sample

Jake, Julian, and Travis try to make sense of Trump’s continued and ineffective attempts to make his base stop caring about Jeffrey Epstein.  In some conspiracist circles, Trump’s moves on this issue are so confusing that they have resorted to “Trump clone” theories. We also discuss the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report that revealed the cryptic birthday note that Trump sent to Epstein.

For dessert, the Jake Street Journal (JSJ) has done an investigation of its own and secured a collection of additional birthday wishes written from Donald Trump to Jeffrey Epstein.

Thanks for subscribing to QAA on patreon.
Editing by Corey Klotz. Theme by Nick Sena. Additional music by Pontus Berghe. Theme Vocals by THEY/LIVE (https://instagram.com/theyylivve / https://sptfy.com/QrDm). Cover Art by Pedro Correa: (https://pedrocorrea.com)
https://qaapodcast.com

QAA was known as the QAnon Anonymous podcast.


///

We’ve launched a new podcast miniseries network: Cursed Media. The very first Cursed Media miniseries is Science in Transition. 

Science in Transition is an investigation into the intellectual origins of the contemporary right wing backlash against transgender acceptance. Through six deeply-researched episodes, hosts Liv Agar and Spencer Barrows unearth a bizarre coalition of well-meaning clinicians, aristocratic sexologists, militant feminists, right-wing culture warriors, headline-chasing journalists, and conservative politicians.

Listen to the first two episodes of Science In Transition and the rest of the six episodes as they are released weekly by subscribing through this link.

www.cursedmedia.net/

Subscribers to Cursed Media get access to three new podcast series per year, plus every episode of QAA’s existing mini-series (properly organized!)

////


REFERENCES  

Jeffrey Epstein’s Friends Sent Him Bawdy Letters for a 50th Birthday Album. One Was From Donald Trump
https://archive.vn/IUWMu

Judge overseeing DOJ Epstein grand jury records request asks for more information
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/judge-overseeing-doj-epstein-grand-jury-records-request/story?id=123964265

Trump may not see the Epstein grand jury records for a while — if at all
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/18/jeffrey-epstein-grand-jury-documents-case-00464189

Americans are broadly dissatisfied with how much Epstein info the government has released, CNN poll finds
https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/15/politics/jeffrey-epstein-cnn-poll


Auto Q
https://x.com/Rep_Stansbury/status/1947702599945490780






A Guy Who Never Dies, Jeffrey Epstein (E333)

This week we are joined by Dr.  Olivier Jutel, a lecturer in the Department of Media, Film & Communication at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. His scholarly focus is in communication studies and media theory, particularly around populism, digital media, political economy, and critical theory.

Travis and Julian chat with Olivier about his iconoclastic take on the paradigms that have dominated U.S. technology and communications policy since 2016. 

Olivier argues that fear of foreign influence has been leveraged by a coalition of Silicon Valley firms, national‑security agencies and allied think‑tanks to deflect structural reform of platforms. Drawing on Cold‑War communication theory, this coalition frames all online conflict as “information warfare,” treating citizens as passive targets for behavioral manipulation while ignoring deeper political‑economic drivers of democratic decay. Jutel retraces the military origins of mass‑communication research, critiques Shoshana Zuboff’s “surveillance capitalism” thesis, and dissects the role of high‑profile disinfo professionals whose methods, he contends, don’t question the core assumptions of tech industry platforms and national‑security priorities. 

Olivier concludes that while this disinformation framework is past its heyday, its war‑like view of social life persists, empowering actors such as Palantir while sidelining antitrust and public‑interest remedies. The solution? A shift toward true democratic governance of digital infrastructure. 

Dr Olivier Jutel at University of Otago
https://www.otago.ac.nz/mfco/staff/olivier-jutel


Thanks for subscribing to QAA on patreon.

Editing by Corey Klotz. Theme by Nick Sena. Additional music by Pontus Berghe. Theme Vocals by THEY/LIVE (https://instagram.com/theyylivve / https://sptfy.com/QrDm). Cover Art by Pedro Correa: (https://pedrocorrea.com)

https://qaapodcast.com

QAA was known as the QAnon Anonymous podcast.

///

We’ve launched a new podcast miniseries network: Cursed Media. The very first Cursed Media miniseries is Science in Transition. 

Science in Transition is an investigation into the intellectual origins of the contemporary right wing backlash against transgender acceptance. Through six deeply-researched episodes, hosts Liv Agar and Spencer Barrows unearth a bizarre coalition of well-meaning clinicians, aristocratic sexologists, militant feminists, right-wing culture warriors, headline-chasing journalists, and conservative politicians.

Listen to the first five episodes of Science In Transition right now and all episodes after the sixth one is released by subscribing through this link.

www.cursedmedia.net/

Subscribers to Cursed Media get access to three new podcast series per year, plus every episode of QAA’s existing mini-series (properly organized!)


The Problem of Disinformation (E334)

Liv, Travis, and Jake discuss the continuing fallout from Charlie Kirk's assassination and new details from Tyler Robinson's charging document.

Thanks for subscribing to QAA on patreon.

Check out our new podcast series network Cursed Media and binge the entirety of our new show Science in Transition by Liv Agar and Spencer Barrows: https://cursedmedia.net

Editing by Corey Klotz. Theme by Nick Sena. Additional music by Pontus Berghe. Theme Vocals by THEY/LIVE (https://instagram.com/theyylivve / https://sptfy.com/QrDm). Cover Art by Pedro Correa: (https://pedrocorrea.com)

https://qaapodcast.com

QAA was known as the QAnon Anonymous podcast.

See You In Valhalla, Charlie (E341)

Ep 228 - Billionaires as Insta-Experts: How Our Media Conflates Extreme Wealth with Expertise

What once was fringe is now just normal. To chat about the new, strange normality, Jake, Julian, and Travis are joined by USA Today extremism report Will Carless. Carless has reported all over the globe for two decades, and has just released the first episode of his new video documentary series "Extremely Normal."

The crew chats about the James Comey indictment, Trump's executive order declaring antifa "domestic terrorists," attempts to rewrite the history of January 6th, and why some young men continue to be drawn towards the message of Andrew Tate.


Subscribe for $5 a month to get all the premium episodes:
https://patreon.com/qaa


Extremely Normal from Will Carless and USA Today
https://youtu.be/NoC7t29e__A?si=f9m2Y8XVGBo2wl89

Will Carless
https://x.com/willcarless


Check out our new podcast series network Cursed Media and binge the entirety of our new show Science in Transition by Liv Agar and Spencer Barrows: https://cursedmedia.net

Editing by Corey Klotz. Theme by Nick Sena. Additional music by Pontus Berghe. Theme Vocals by THEY/LIVE (https://instagram.com/theyylivve / https://sptfy.com/QrDm). Cover Art by Pedro Correa: (https://pedrocorrea.com)

https://qaapodcast.com

QAA was known as the QAnon Anonymous podcast.


What's Normal Anymore? (E342)

Will interviews Los Angeles reporter Memo Torres, whose site L.A. TACO shifted from covering food and culture in the city to some of the most indispensable and horrific coverage of ICE raids available. Memo tells us about what happens to people when they get kidnapped, covering the horrors of fortress America, and practical advice for those who might find themselves in ICE’s crosshairs.

Read more at L.A. TACO: https://lataco.com/ 

And follow Memo Torres on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/el_tragon_de_los_angeles/?hl=en

UNLOCKED: ICE is Coming to a City Near You feat. Memo Torres


Why do tech oligarchs keep proclaiming that the end is nigh? From Elon Musk warning of the civilizational-level threat of the “woke mind virus,” to Marc Andreessen declaring that “any deceleration of AI will cost lives,” to Peter Thiel’s fixation with the Antichrist, billionaires are insistent that the stakes of their ventures are nothing less than apocalyptic. 

To better understand the paranoia of Silicon Valley overlords, Travis, Jake, and Julian are joined by Chris Marquis, Sinyi Professor of Chinese Management at the University of Cambridge and author of the book The Profiteers: How Business Privatizes Profits and Socializes Costs.

Christopher Marquis
https://chrismarquis.com/

Christopher Marquis at Jacobin
https://jacobin.com/author/christopher-marquis

The Profiteers: How Business Privatizes Profits and Socializes Costs
https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-profiteers-how-business-privatizes-profits-and-socializes-costs-christopher-marquis/ecaf3d412fe119c2

Subscribe for $5 a month to get all the premium QAA episodes: https://www.patreon.com/qaa


The first two episodes of Annie Kelly’s new podcast miniseries “Truly, Tradly, Deeply” will be released on the Cursed Media podcast network on the 29th of October.

www.cursedmedia.net/

Cursed Media subscribers also get access to every episode of every QAA miniseries we produced, including Manclan by Julian Feeld and Annie Kelly, Trickle Down by Travis View, The Spectral Voyager by Jake Rockatansky and Brad Abrahams, and Perverts by Julian Feeld and Liv Agar. Plus, Cursed Media subscribers will get access to at least three new exclusive podcast miniseries every year.

www.cursedmedia.net/



Editing by Corey Klotz. Theme by Nick Sena. Additional music by Pontus Berghe. Theme Vocals by THEY/LIVE (https://instagram.com/theyylivve / https://sptfy.com/QrDm). Cover Art by Pedro Correa: (https://pedrocorrea.com)

https://qaapodcast.com

QAA was known as the QAnon Anonymous podcast.


SOURCES

Inside tech billionaire Peter Thiel’s off-the-record lectures about the antichrist
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/10/peter-thiel-lectures-antichrist


Inside billionaire Peter Thiel’s private lectures: Warnings of ‘the Antichrist’ and U.S. destruction
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/10/10/peter-thiel-antichrist-lectures-leaked/

The Techno-Optimist Manifesto - Marc Andreessen
https://a16z.com/the-techno-optimist-manifesto/


The Tech Billionaire Doomsday Preachers (E346)

Friend of the show Steve Sladkowski of PUP the band joins us as we discuss voter suppression in Kentucky with regards to the New York mayoral race, Zohran's victory in that race and what hope we can take from it as well as what we would like to see from the left going forward nationally, good and bad A.I. bubbles, UPS plane crash in Louisville, and the ongoing perils of being governed by drunks and morons.

Catch Steve here: @sladkow on X/Twitter; PUPtheband.com

Subscribe to our patreon: patreon.com/trillbillyworkersparty

For the everyday is Halloween crowd, our Halloween special is available here now for free: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2BTmHqs2Dw&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.patreon.com%2F

Episode 417: Springabreakers (w/ Special Guest: Steve Sladkowski)

Have you been having fun with the newest slate of AI tools? Have you been doing research with GPT-5? Coding your projects with Claude? Turning pictures of your friends into cartoon characters from the Fairly Odd Parents using the image editing tool Nano Banana? 

Are you impressed with what they can do? Well guess what? You’re only impressed with them because you’re basically a naive child. You’re like a little child with an etch a sketch who is amazed that they can make crude images by turning the knobs, oblivious to greater possibilities. At least, that’s the impression you get when listening to tech leaders, philosophers, and even governments. According to them, soon the most impressive of AI tools will look as cheap and primitive as Netflix’s recommendation algorithm in 2007. Soon the world will have to reckon with the power of Artificial General Intelligence, or “AGI.”

What is AGI? Definitions vary. When will it come? Perhaps months. Perhaps years. Perhaps decades. But definitely soon enough for you to worry about. What will it mean for humanity once it's here? Perhaps a techno utopia. Perhaps extinction. No one is sure. But what they are sure of is that AGI is definitely coming and it’s definitely going to be a big deal. A mystical event. A turning point in history, after which nothing will ever be the same.

However, some are more skeptical, like our guest today Will Douglas Heaven. Will has a PhD in Computer Science from Imperial College London and is the senior editor for AI at MIT Technology review. He recently published an article, based on his conversations with AI researchers, which provocatively calls AGI “the most consequential conspiracy theory of our time.”

Jake and Travis chat with Will about the conspiracy theory-like talk from the AI industry, whether AGI is just “vibes and snake oil,” and how to distinguish between tech breakthroughs and Silicon Valley hyperbole. 

Will Douglas Heaven
https://bsky.app/profile/willdouglasheaven.bsky.social

How AGI became the consequential conspiracy theory of our time
https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/10/30/1127057/agi-conspiracy-theory-artifcial-general-intelligence/


Subscribe for $5 a month to get all the premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/qaa



Editing by Corey Klotz. Theme by Nick Sena. Additional music by Pontus Berghe. Theme Vocals by THEY/LIVE (https://instagram.com/theyylivve / https://sptfy.com/QrDm). Cover Art by Pedro Correa: (https://pedrocorrea.com)

https://qaapodcast.com

QAA was known as the QAnon Anonymous podcast.

The first three episodes of Annie Kelly’s new 6-part podcast miniseries “Truly Tradly Deeply” are available to Cursed Media subscribers, with new episodes released weekly.

www.cursedmedia.net/

Cursed Media subscribers also get access to every episode of every QAA miniseries we produced, including Manclan by Julian Feeld and Annie Kelly, Trickle Down by Travis View, The Spectral Voyager by Jake Rockatansky and Brad Abrahams, and Perverts by Julian Feeld and Liv Agar. Plus, Cursed Media subscribers will get access to at least three new exclusive podcast miniseries every year.

www.cursedmedia.net/




REFERENCES

Debates on the nature of artificial general intelligence
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ado7069?utm_source=chatgpt.com

Why AI Is Harder Than We Think
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2104.12871

AI Capabilities May Be Overhyped on Bogus Benchmarks, Study Finds
https://gizmodo.com/ai-capabilities-may-be-overhyped-on-bogus-benchmarks-study-finds-2000682577

Examining the geographic concentration of VC investment in AI
https://ssti.org/blog/examining-geographic-concentration-vc-investment-ai

Margaret Mitchell: artificial general intelligence is ‘just vibes and snake oil’
https://www.ft.com/content/7089bff2-25fc-4a25-98bf-8828ab24f48e



AGI Is a Conspiracy Theory (E347)

MSNBC is by far the most influential mainstream media outlet on the American Left. It sets the tone and defines the boundary for what is acceptable discourse among American liberals. But major issues the Left is generally thought to care about - imperial war, worker strikes, Palestine, climate change - are almost entirely absent from coverage, as the network increasingly looks like a 24-hour Trump-Russia infomercial.

What is the point of having a liberal cable news network when it ignores so many major issues on the Left and pushes a narrative that, in the aggregate, does little beyond selling more weapons systems and inflaming US-Russia proxy wars in Syria and Ukraine? How did MSNBC get this way? What are the corporate forces making it so terrible, and is there hope for a more thoughtful, politically relevant network? 

We are joined, anonymously, by a former MSNBC employee.

Transcript:
https://medium.com/@CitationsPodcst/episode-34-what-the-hell-is-wrong-with-msnbc-5a4538f32ef

Episode 34: What the Hell is Wrong with MSNBC?

Citations Needed is a podcast about the media, power, PR, and the history of bullshit. It is hosted by Nima Shirazi and Adam Johnson, and produced by Florence Barrau-Adams.

Episode 34: What the Hell is Wrong with MSNBC?

Citations Needed Podcast